Vigilante
by Metal.Kirby
Summary: FOURSHOT: Playing the vigilante will eventually corrupt you, and when faced with lawful good... you will get caught. Darkfic set in HG/SS universe.
1. Chapter 1

**Vigilante**

Playing the vigilante will eventually corrupt you, and when faced with lawful good... you will get caught. Four-shot Darkfic.

* * *

"You're under arrest."

A bold proclamation rang out in the dimly lit halls of the Underground Path in Goldenrod City. The source of such a statement – none other than Lance the Dragon Master and Kanto-Johto regional Champion. With his entire Pokemon team out to block all the exits, Lance had one dark, abnormal figure. The foreboding figure that once stood as advocate for all things truly good in the world was trapped. Cornered.

"Under arrest? Me?" The figure laughed. "That's a great joke Lance."

"I'm not joking." Lance said softly. "Mirrow, turn yourself in."

Mirrow shook his head. "And why would I do that?"

In recent months, three influential figures within the Pokemon League were revealed as sponsors of Pokemon cruelty. Even if undeniably guilty, evidence was needed to put them behind bars. And those bastards knew how to cover up a trail.

"Don't make this harder than it already is." Lance said, unfolding his arms. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me? No Lance, you and I both know that it'll be the other way around." Mirrow said mockingly. "In case you didn't know, I can _teleport_ out of here. You can't catch me."

"Mirrow, please." Lance pleaded. "This is the last time I'm going to ask."

"_This is the last time I'm going to ask._" Mirrow mocked Lance. "Why are you doing this Lance? Why are you bothering? Why are down here with me? Why didn't you stop those officials? _Why did you spend your time and resources tracking me down, instead of putting the son's of bitches that committed REAL CRIMES BEHIND BARS?_"

"You killed them!" Lance shouted, eyes steely. "You killed them Mirrow! Ruthlessly slaughtered them! Dismembered their limbs! Severed their heads! You paraded them across the city to hoist them on a flagpole!"

Mirrow scoffed. "They deserved it."

"It wasn't just them." Lance said without missing a beat. "What about those ex-Team Rocket members? We cleared them of their charges"

"Team Rocket was trash."

"THESE PEOPLE WEREN'T!" Lance bellowed, his voice echoing off the tiled walls. "THEIR FAMILIES WEREN'T!"

Mirrow turned his back on Lance. "The world needs to be cleansed of evil Lance."

"You have a kill count of 15, and you've hospitalized over 50 innocent people within three months. That seems pretty evil to me."

"Necessary losses."

"A four year old that didn't even know what her father did is a necessary loss?"

"That's different!" Mirrow retorted. "She ran in front of him, there was no way I could sto-"

"You're a threat to everyone but yourself." Lance spat. "It was different when you were just assisting the police forces, playing the super hero… but you've committed crimes. You've committed murder. Someone has to knock you down off your disillusioned pedestal Mirrow, and it's going to be me. You're understand, don't you? No one is above the law._ Not even someone like you._"

Mirrow burst out laughing. "_Is that supposed to insult me?_"

In a sudden instant, he was on top of Lance, his form the shape of a Nidoking with large eyes in a piercing shade of red. His claws dug into the protective layers of Lance's suit, slicing through them like butter. He snorted. "Be honest Lance; be that with what little honesty you have left. You don't give a shit about what I do! You're out for revenge… the only reason why you're trying to arrest me is because of _her_!"

Lance's Dragonite rushed to his partner's aid firing a Hydro Pump at Mirrow and following it up with Skull Bash.

Mirrow's body tumbled to the ground. As he picked himself up, his body grew larger. With an Iron Tail, he swatted Dragonite away, sending it flying down to the end of the underground tunnel.

"Are you angry Lance?" Mirrow taunted, his voice unsettlingly distorted. "Are you saddened by the fact that you'll never see the great Champion ever again? Saddened by the fact that you'll never get to confess your love for her?"

"Dragonite, hang in there, I need your help!" Lance said, rushing to his Pokemon's aid. He ripped his torn cape off. "Flood the tunnels!"

From either end of the tunnels, waves of water gushed in. Within seconds, the entire tunnel was filled with knee high water.

"Flood the tunnels?" Mirrow roared with laughter. "You weren't paying attention, were you?" In a flash of light, Mirrow's monstrous form disappeared from sight. He reappeared behind the Dragon Master, Mega Punching him into a wall. His small form crumpled to the floor with a splash.

"Dragonite… DragonBreath." Lance ordered weakly, coughing up blood. A mighty gust of acidlike breath blasted into Mirrow's body. He roared and charged towards Dragonite with a Take Down.

"I was doing the world justice by removing it of scum. Like those puppeteers you call League officials. Like those smarmy Team Rocket idiots." Mirrow fired a Hyper Beam at the duo. "And you! You let me do what I wanted, whenever I wanted! Tell me, who's worse? A man that killed another man, or the cop that saw the crime and turned a blind eye when he should have put him in handcuffs?" He laughed. "You're just as bad as those League officials… you covered my tracks! You planned on doing that for a while, because you believed in my cause. And then _she_ found out."

"Enough! Dragonite, use Dragon Rage!"

Mirrow brushed away the draconic fires. "Because of you, she's gone! She chased after something too big for her and you let her do it. You let her go, and now she's dead!" The monster used his teleporting ability generously, turning Lance and his Dragonite into his own personal bouncing balls. Teleport, smash, repeat. Lance flailed in agony as he felt his ribs fracture with each bone-crushing blow.

Two silhouettes appeared in the distance. "Alakazam, use Disable!" A pulse of energy encircled around Mirrow's figure, freezing him in place. "NO!" He roared, clutching his head. "Psybeam!" A colorful beam of energy slammed into Mirrow's body, sending him into a temporary lapse of confusion.

"Sabrina!"

"Lance!" Sabrina yelled. "Come on, we have to get out of he-" A blue energy engulfed her body, restricting her movements. She hovered in the air for a moment before smashing into the floor covered in kneehigh water.

Mirrow was trying to drown her with Psychic.

Alakazam fired a Psybeam at the monster, only to be slammed into a wall by another Psychic. "Dragonite! Use Take Down!" The Dragon Pokemon's physical attack from behind broke Mirrow's focus on Sabrina. "Alakazam! Take her and flee!"

The psychic duo disappeared from sight, leaving three in the rising waters, now chest high.

Dragonite trapped Mirrow in a vortex of swirling water. Mirrow's body morphed into that of smaller, fishlike form. He surfed against the current of the Whirlpool to the top before striking the dragon type with a series Hydro Pumps. After a minute of enduring the massive torrents of water, Dragonite fell.

Lance recalled his partner into safety inside its Pokeball. "Thank you friend…"

Mirrow approached the Dragon Master. A claw-like appendage sprouted from his side, grabbing Lance by the neck, lifting him high above his head.

"It's over for you Lance. Even if you managed to Disable me from Teleporting away, I can just Transform into a water type." Mirrow said, his voice not far from a demonic announcer. "I'll survive this flood and escape. But you? You! Will! DIE!" He tightened his grip around Lance's throat, slowly choking him.

In an act of desperation, Lance reached for his belt and grabbed a dark purple Pokeball.

"Your Pokemon can't help you now… they're all outside, don't you remember?" Mirrow cackled. "Say goodbye, Dragon Master." With one final squeeze, he stole the last breath of the invincible Lance.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Sabrina couldn't get the image out of her head. For weeks she foresaw it. A grim event was to happen at Goldenrod. She didn't know what it meant, until she got a call from Bruno, telling her to head to the city immediately.

"Mirrow is here."

The moment she saw the crowd of trainers, and spotted the entire Gym Leader coalition and the Elite Four, she knew something was wrong. She felt danger and immediately, wordlessly, rushed to Lance's aid. Oh how the tables turned quickly; Not three seconds since her arrival, she was the one that needed help.

Before things got worse, Alakazam teleported her out of the tunnel. And now, she could feel Lance's spirit fading.

* * *

"Lance!" Sabrina screamed, still coughing water out of her lungs. She could sense the Dragon Master's heartbeat slowing. "Alakazam… we have to go back! Telep-"

Koga tightly squeezed her shoulder. "No."

"But, he-… He's… dying!" Sabrina spluttered. "We have to help…"

She saw the Gym Leaders shake their heads. That's it? They were just going to let him die? They weren't going to do anything? How incredibly stupid could her colleagues be? Lance is dying for Arceus's sake, someone needs to act before his-…

Lance's heart came to a stop.

Sabrina felt her eyes water as she pleaded to teleport back in the tunnel. "We can still save-"

"He was well aware of the risks." Koga cut in. "It's too dangerous. As acting regional Champion and as your superior, I'm ordering you to stay put."

Koga was going to leave Lance for dead. Before she could argue, Falkner and Green pulled her away from the scene. She called to her Alakazam and discovered it entranced by Morty.

She couldn't do a damn thing.

They dragged her to the Poke Center and kept her under watch so she couldn't run away. By then it was too late… even resuscitating him would be impossible. They had done nothing to help him.

Lance was gone.

* * *

A day had passed. The Pokemon Center politely evacuated all trainers from the building, leaving a lobby full of Leaders and the Elite Four. The door slid open and in walked Koga.

For a moment, everyone was still.

"You son of a bitch!" Sabrina angrily rose from her seat. A green aura encircled her hands as she used her psychic abilities to repeatedly slam Koga into the wall. "YOU LET HIM DIE! YOU ALL LET HIM DIE!"

Sabrina released him and spun around to face a very fearful crowd. She used telekinetics to lift everything in the lobby – chairs, lamps, phones, it didn't matter. She was going to make everyone pay for dishonoring everything they stood for. For letting a comrade die.

"Sabrina!" Morty said, glowing with a blue spiritual energy. He cancelled out Sabrina's psychic grip. "It was Lance's idea. He went into the tunnel after Mirrow, knowing he might have to sacrifice his own life."

Sabrina's anger suddenly died down as Morty rested his glowing hands on her shoulders. She felt her eyes close as Morty soothingly reassured her. "It's okay. Taking down Mirrow this way… it was meant to be." Morty said quietly. "It was part of his plan."

"What plan?" Sabrina eyes snapped open. Her anger flared up once more, though not nearly as bad as before. She stared Morty down, who refused to say anything more. The Leaders around them remained suspiciously silent. "_What plan_?" Sabrina repeated, this time with more authority.

Ordinarily, Sabrina didn't subject herself to reading the minds of others. Especially when she was angry, as learning what others were thinking only added fuel to her rage. But everyone was keeping secrets from her.

Additionally, everyone was casting sideways glances at Koga. Sabrina turned to the disheveled man leaning with his back against the wall. She lifted a hand menacingly – not that he was scared. He simply sighed and nodded.

Almost instantly, they started spilling the details. "Lance was waiting for Mirrow to enter the underground path in Goldenrod." "He was going to flood the tunnels." "It was a gamble. Mirrow could have teleported out a long time ago."

Amidst all the noise, Morty stared at her intently, as if inviting her to read his mind. "_He was just distracting Mirrow until you arrived._"

"Until I arrived?" Sabrina blinked. "What?"

The crowd quieted. Apparently they forgot she could do that.

"It was a one way ticket." Morty said softspokenly. "Once the tunnels started to flood, no one would be able to get in. He ordered us to watch all the exits and let you in to assist him. "

"He… knew I was going to go down there and try to help him escape?" Sabrina asked.

"Not to help him escape." Koga muttered. "To prevent Mirrow from escaping."

"Prevent him…" She repeated. It all clicked. "He wanted me to use Disable on Mirrow to prevent him from teleporting away."

"Mirrow would end up being trapped down there. With all of us guarding the exits, he wouldn't be able to escape." Morty continued, closing his eyes. "The water was meant to be a deterrent, and if anything went wrong, we would have had Jasmine coax Amphy to light up the flood." He shook his head, before quickly adding, "Not the most ideal fallback plan, but this is Mirrow, we're talking about here. Lance wanted to make sure he was neutralized." It made perfect sense. Of course Lance would plan all of this out in advance. He just needed that one opportunity to trap him so that he would die. Except…

"But-… It didn't work!" Sabrina exclaimed frantically. "Mirrow is still alive… I can feel his presence, he's still here!"

"He's supposed to be alive." Koga said, finally picking himself up. "But he won't be able to escape. Lance had to keep him distracted…"

"Distracted for what? Alakazam already Disabled his Teleport."

"Distracted for this." The poison ninja pulled a purple ball from his sleeve. "Poke balls are rather fragile. Even one that guarantees instant capture can be broken before it's used."

Sabrina recalled seeing a ball slip from Lance's fingertips from her visions. She stared at the Master Ball in disbelief.

"Is that… ?" Sabrina started to ask. Her voice trailed off.

"Lance had a hunch." Koga said quietly. "That Mirrow's shapeshifting ability wasn't some freaky superpower or genetic experiment gone wrong like everyone thought. He bet his life on it. Thank Arceus he was right."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Mirrow is… a Pokemon?"

"If you recall, the last recorded entry of Lyra's Pokedex-" Everyone stiffened at the mention of her name. "-was that of a Ditto. We originally thought that the Pokedex malfunctioned and recorded Mirrow's transforming power. However…" Koga set the ball down on a nearby table. "Green has confirmed the Pokedex wasn't malfunctioning. He's volunteered to take Mirrow to Silph for examination."

All of this came as a shock for Sabrina. The mass murderer they were hunting down for the last couple months was a Pokemon? And wait a second, did he just say Silph?

"Absolutely not!" Sabrina shrieked. "I will not have an abomination in my city where he could endanger innocent people. He's a monster, he should be dead right now!"

Koga silenced her with a raised hand. "The Master Ball used on Mirrow is Silph property. Allow me to remind you that regardless of what sort of crimes he committed, he is a Pokemon and an extremely resilient one at that. No amount of Thundershocks from Raichu in the electric chair is going to kill him, and as League officials, we have no right to inhumanely kill a Pokemon."

"But-"

"There's nothing to stop us, however, from donating a dangerous Pokemon to equally dangerous experimentation. The higher-ups themselves proposed that notion..."

Sabrina held her tongue.

Will cleared his throat, stepping beside Koga. "This cannot go public. Mirrow is in the public's eye, a terrible genetic accident. If they knew he was a Pokemon?" He didn't have to say anything more. Pokemon have always been dangerous, but this discovery would send the public into frenzy. The media would tear the League down. Countless of people, even those that weren't trainers, would be forced to give up their Pokemon. Their friends. Their life partners.

It would be the end of the peaceful Pokemon world as they knew it and the start of Pokemon genocide.

"We have to keep with appearances. We will say we are doing everything in our power to undo the damages of the supposed experimentation, by running more procedures on him. If he dies, well… we tried."

"And Sabrina?" Koga called the girl to attention. "If Mirrow somehow manages to survive the experimentation, you will be given the responsibility of personally tearing apart his memory until he is left with nothing. Do you understand?"

Sabrina nodded.

"You must ensure he is no longer a threat. Then he'll like all the other Dittos in the world." Koga said.

"Mere _tools_ for breeding."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

"He wants to thank you." Morty said, sitting down on a bench next to the distraught Kanto Psychic Gym Leader. His gaze was fixated on the waves of the high tide on the beach below. "Lance owes you a lot."

"Lance doesn't owe me anything." She snarled. Just when she was starting to feel better about the situation again, Morty had to come in and ruin it with his afterlife garbage. "I left him there to die."

"He knows you wanted to save him."

"Why are you here?" Sabrina asked frankly. Morty was hardly ever the comforting type. Hearing him speak so gently was strange. About as strange as-

"Two psychic trainers talking amongst themselves with words instead of reading each other's thoughts?" he finished her thought. Damn, so he could do that too? She didn't even feel him intrude, which meant that either her mental barriers weren't in place, or he was a higher level psychic than she was.. "Don't sweat it Sabrina. You're emotional right now."

Sabrina couldn't have felt any more out of place than right now. Lance was dead, she couldn't bring herself to accept it, she wasn't in complete control over her mental abilities let alone her emotions, and to top it off, she was next to someone nearly her equal in terms of Psychic ability. Morty, who was usually so energetic and go-with-the-flow, such a stark contrast to her no-bullshit attitude, was acting just like her.

And she was acting like some depressed Kadabra.

"He doesn't want you to feel this way." Morty continued, ignoring that last thought.

There he goes again, Sabrina thought. Speaking in the present tense, as if Lance really was there.

"But he is! Not in body, but in spirit!" Morty exclaimed. "Surely you can feel it?"

She looked at him blankly and shook her head. "I can't feel much of anything right now."

Sabrina was the last person to have seen Lance before he died. She planned on being the hero, or at the very least a sidekick to Lance. Getting him out of the tunnels, saving him from near death. None of it went as planned. She wasn't anything more than a pawn in Lance's plan. Something she, _of all people, _should have known years beforehand.

"You have nothing to be ashamed about." Morty said. "You played your part. You did exactly what he wanted you to do, and because of that we now have Mirrow in captivity."

"We could have got him." Sabrina said. "If I had gotten there sooner, if I just understood what I had seen and been there from the beginning-"

"What happened couldn't have happened any different." Morty lectured her. Snapping her out of this daze would be harder than he thought. She was acting… human, for once. "Just a few minutes earlier..." She felt her eyes well up with tears. "No, not even that. If I had been on my guard the whole time…"

"Sabrina!" Morty yelled, snapping her out of it. "Stop blaming yourself. You did what you could. And we won because of that."

She didn't feel like she won anything. Hell, they weren't even allowed to kill the murderer.

Sabrina blinked. Did she honestly just think that? Great Arceus, what was wrong with her? She'd become so consumed by anger that she condoned the thought of killing someone for payback.

'_Hey_.' Morty planted his thoughts into her mind, getting her attention and disdain. Once you planted a thought into someone, they'd hear it in their head for hours. In her case, it was gone in a few seconds.

"I know you don't believe in things like the afterlife, but haven't you ever felt an unexplainable presence before?" Morty asked. She nodded in reply. "Well I can see them as spirits." _Clearly_. "Lance is here. He wants you to know that he is forever in your debt."

Sabrina did something she even recognized as being completely out of character—she hugged Morty. After the initial shock wore off, he embraced her comfortingly as she cried into his shoulder. "It's okay." The sat on the bench like that for what seemed like hours until dusk.

"Thanks." Sabrina sniffled, face red with tears. Morty responded with a grunt.

Lance's Dragonite, now freely released, swooped down onto the beach below, letting loose a cry of mourning. Sabrina locked eyes with it for a moment, and gave it a little wave. It waved back before letting loose another howl.

_'You know, I'm never going to let you live that down.' _Morty thought mischievously.  
_  
'Asshat.'_


End file.
